Pope supports agricultural cooperatives in World Food Day message

In his message for World Food Day, Pope Benedict XVI expressed the support of the Catholic Church for agricultural cooperatives.

Cooperatives, the Holy Father wrote, can be “a real tool for international action.” He explained that cooperatives, “apart from stimulating agricultural activities, are a way to enable farmers and rural populations to participate in decision making, and an efficient means to achieve an integral development which has human beings as its foundation and goal.”

The Pope’s message—addressed to José Graziano da Silva, the director general of the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO)—noted that “the position of people who live in situations of poverty and underdevelopment is worsening.” The message called upon world leaders to “free humankind from hunger through agricultural development and the growth of rural communities.”

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